Pensum
Pensum vs Lose It!
Pensum is a calorie and macro tracker built to be simple, calm and fast. Barcode scanning, photo logging, gram macro targets, 18 micronutrients against daily targets and a calorie target from your measured expenditure all come in the free version, with no ads and no account. In Lose It, photo logging and macro goals need Premium, now $79.99 a year, and the barcode scanner is moving behind it too.
Android. iPhone waitlist on the home page.
Choose Pensum. You get barcode scanning, photo logging, gram macro targets, 18 micronutrients and a calorie target that follows your measured expenditure, free, with no ads and no account. Lose It keeps barcode scanning, Snap It photo logging and macro goals for Premium at $79.99 a year, and its free tier shows ads. Pensum is on Android today, with an iPhone waitlist.
Is Lose It free? What Lose It locks behind Premium
Lose It's free tier, called Basic, covers a personalized calorie budget, food search, weight logging and the community. It comes with ads: the Play listing marks the app as containing ads, and Lose It's own ad-free article names full-page interstitials and banner ads in the food log.
Behind the paywall, according to Lose It's Play listing and help center: barcode scanning, Snap It photo logging, AI voice logging, macro and nutrient goals, vitamins and minerals, and meal planning. The barcode scanner is the newest addition. Lose It says it is moving the scanner and the nutrition label scanner into Premium, and some free members keep access only while the transition runs.
Premium costs $79.99 a year, renewing annually, per Lose It's help center. Many reviews still quote $39.99, the earlier price. No monthly plan is listed. New users can get a 7-day free trial.
| Feature | Pensum | Lose It! |
|---|---|---|
| Barcode scanner | Free | Premium only (moving from free) |
| Nutrition label scan | Free | Premium only |
| Photo logging | Free | Premium only (Snap It) |
| Voice logging | Free | Premium only |
| Macro goals in grams | Free | Premium only |
| Vitamins and minerals | 18 micronutrients against targets, free | Premium only |
| Planning meals ahead | Copy entries to any day, free | Premium only (meal planning) |
| Ads | None, on any tier | On Basic; Eliminate Ads is a separate purchase |
| Plan (US prices) | Pensum | Lose It! |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Everything you need to track, no ads | Basic: calorie budget, food search, weight log, with ads |
| Yearly | Optional Plus; Google Play shows the price in your currency | Premium $79.99, auto-renews |
| One-time | Not needed | Lifetime $299.99 ($229.99 for active Premium members); Eliminate Ads purchase |
| Trial | None needed, nothing to cancel | 7-day Premium trial for new users |
Lose It prices from its Membership Tiers and Pricing help article, updated 9 September 2026. Regional prices differ.
How Pensum is paid for. Everything you need to track is free: diary, manual logging, barcode scanning, search, photo logging, label scan, voice log, saved meals and recipes, recipe import, favorites, Log again, 18 micronutrients plus fiber, sugar and saturated fat, trends, adaptive targets, Ask Pensum, Health Connect sync, widgets, CSV export and imports.
Pensum Plus is optional. It pays for what costs money to run: unlimited AI, micronutrients that fill in on their own as you log, and a daily cloud backup, encrypted in transit and at rest. Nothing you need to track sits behind it.
Pensum vs Lose It, side by side
What each app gives you free, and what Lose It keeps for Premium.
| Pensum | Lose It! | |
|---|---|---|
| Price and access | ||
| Free tier | Full tracker, free | Basic: calorie budget, search, weight |
| Paid tier | Optional Plus: unlimited AI, auto micro fill, daily cloud backup | Premium $79.99 a year |
| Ads | None, on any tier | Interstitial and banner ads on Basic; affiliate cards remain after Eliminate Ads |
| Account | None needed | Required |
| Logging | ||
| Barcode scanner | Free | Premium only (moving from free); English device language only |
| Photo logging | Up to five photos of one meal plus notes, free | Snap It, Premium only, English device language only |
| Voice logging | Voice log, free | AI voice (Say It), Premium only |
| Nutrition label scan | Free | Premium only |
| Repeat meals | Saved meals, recipes, favorites, Log again, last portion remembered | My Foods, Meals, Recipes tabs |
| Plan future meals | Copy entries to any day, tomorrow included, free | Meal planning, Premium only |
| Food data | ||
| Database | Hand-curated catalogue on USDA FoodData Central, plus German and Swiss national data, plus millions of branded products via Open Food Facts | 50M+ items, mostly member-entered; verified foods marked by a green check |
| Search order | Generic whole foods rank above branded products | Recent and frequent foods for the meal first |
| Targets and expenditure | ||
| Calorie target | Adaptive, from measured expenditure, free | BMR times chosen activity level, minus goal deficit |
| Macro goals in grams | Free; pin protein, fat or carbs in grams or g/kg | Premium only |
| Macros when calories change | Unpinned macros fill around the new target | Macro goals stay fixed; you adjust them by hand |
| Nutrients | ||
| Micronutrients | 18 plus fiber, sugar and saturated fat against targets, free; each value flagged verified, partial or estimated | Vitamins and minerals, Premium only |
| AI features | ||
| Questions about your diary | Ask Pensum answers from your own diary, free; changes only on Apply | Not listed |
| Recipe import | From pasted text or a screenshot, free | Not listed |
| Privacy and data | ||
| Where the diary lives | On your phone; no data sale | Lose It account in the cloud |
| Export | CSV export and manual backups, free | Full export at loseit.com/export/data |
| Languages | ||
| Languages | English and German, metric and imperial | Scan It, Snap It and Say It in English only |
Lose It features from its Google Play listing and help center, checked 25 September 2026. "Not listed" means the feature is not named in those sources.
What actually differs
The barcode scanner is the new paywall
For years the Lose It pitch was simple: log for free, pay for extras. The 2026 changes moved the line. Lose It's help center says the barcode scanner and the nutrition label scanner are becoming Premium features, and the tiers page lists barcode scanning as part of the $79.99 plan. For anyone who eats packaged food, that is the feature used most often in a day.
In Pensum, barcode scanning is free. Search runs over a hand-curated catalogue built on USDA FoodData Central, plus millions of branded products via Open Food Facts. Basics rank before branded products, and every value is marked verified, partial or estimated. If a barcode is not found, photograph the nutrition label: Pensum reads the values and adds the product to Open Food Facts for everyone. Repeat foods open on the portion you last used, and Log again adds any earlier entry to today.
Macro goals in grams, and what happens when calories move
Lose It lists macro tracking and nutrient goals under Premium. Its own help article on macros adds a detail worth knowing: when your calorie budget changes with your weight, your macro goals do not follow, and you adjust them by hand. Pensum lets you pin protein, fat or carbs to your own grams or grams per kilogram, free. The calorie target moves with your measured expenditure, and the macros you did not pin fill in around it.
A budget from a formula, or from your own data
Lose It calculates your calorie budget from your BMR, multiplied by one of four activity levels you pick, minus a deficit for your weekly goal. It rescales as your weight drops. If the activity level you picked is off, the budget stays off.
Pensum starts from an estimate too, then measures what you actually burn from your logged intake and your weight trend, and moves your target when that measurement changes. It is free. The full method, every equation and constant, is published at pensumapp.com/expenditure. For a first estimate before you have data, use the TDEE calculator.
Photo logging: Premium only at Lose It, free in Pensum
Snap It analyzes a photo, suggests matching foods from Lose It's database with an estimated serving, and lets you edit before saving. It is Premium only and works only when your phone's language is English.
Pensum's photo logging is free. It takes up to five photos of one meal plus your notes, such as a rough weight, the oil you used or the size of the bowl, and returns an editable ingredient list that names hidden oil and sugar. It works in English and German. Our published research found that telling the model the plate's total weight cut the average gram error roughly in half. See the photo logging page.
No ads, no account, no affiliate cards
Lose It's free version carries interstitial and banner ads. Its one-time Eliminate Ads purchase removes those, but its help center says Premium prompts, weekly affiliate offers and affiliate cards in the Dashboard and Discover tabs remain. Pensum has no ads, no affiliate partners and no account. The diary lives on your phone, and nothing is sold. Backups are files you control, or with Plus an automatic daily copy encrypted in transit and at rest.
Pensum is for you if
- You want barcode scanning, photo logging and gram macro targets free.
- You want a calorie target that follows your measured expenditure.
- You want 18 micronutrients against daily targets, each value marked verified, partial or estimated.
- You want a calm diary that is quick to log in.
- You want no ads, no affiliate offers and no account.
- You are on Android, including phones without Google services.
Switching from Lose It to Pensum
Pensum cannot import a Lose It export today. Your weigh-ins can still come over, and your regular foods are quick to rebuild.
- Download your Lose It data first. Sign in at my.loseit.com in a browser, then open loseit.com/export/data and the full export downloads. It holds your complete weight history. Keep it as your own archive.
- Put your weigh-ins into Health Connect. On Android, Lose It can write weight entries logged in Lose It to Health Connect. In Health Connect, check that Lose It has write access for weight and let it sync.
- Install Pensum and allow Health Connect. From Google Play, no account. Grant weight access and Pensum reads your weigh-ins, so your weight trend is there from day one.
- Rebuild your regular foods by scanning them. Scan the barcodes of what you buy every week; Pensum remembers the portion you used, and Log again adds any earlier entry to today. Save your usual breakfasts and recipes once and they stay.
- Let expenditure settle. Pensum starts from an estimate and switches to your measured expenditure once it has enough logged days. Pin your protein and keep logging.
Lose It questions
Is Lose It free?
Only the basics. Lose It Basic gives you a calorie budget, food search, weight logging and the community, and it shows ads. Barcode scanning, Snap It photo logging, voice logging, macro and nutrient goals and vitamins and minerals are Premium only. In Pensum, barcode scanning, photo logging, voice logging, gram macro targets and 18 micronutrients are free, with no ads.
How much is Lose It Premium in 2026?
Lose It's help center lists Premium at $79.99 USD a year, renewing annually, up from the $39.99 many older reviews quote. Lifetime access is a one-time $299.99, or $229.99 for active Premium members. New users can get a 7-day free trial. Pensum's tracker costs nothing, and Pensum Plus is optional.
Is Lose It Premium worth it?
If Lose It Premium feels too expensive, here is what $79.99 a year pays for: barcode scanning, Snap It, voice logging, macro and nutrient goals and an ad-free app. Pensum gives you the core of that free: barcode scanning, photo and voice logging, gram macro targets and 18 micronutrients, plus a calorie target from your measured expenditure, with no ads and no account.
Is the Lose It barcode scanner free?
Not any more for most people. Lose It's help center says it is moving the barcode scanner and the nutrition label scanner into Premium, and some free members keep access only during the transition. The scanner also needs the device language set to English. In Pensum, barcode scanning and label scanning are free, in English and German.
Does Lose It have ads?
Yes. Google Play marks Lose It as containing ads, and its help center describes full-page interstitials and banner ads in the food log on the free version. A one-time Eliminate Ads purchase removes those, but Premium upgrade prompts and affiliate promotion cards stay. Pensum has no ads on the free plan or on Plus.
Can I export my Lose It data?
Yes. Sign in at my.loseit.com in a web browser, then open loseit.com/export/data and the full export downloads. It includes your complete weight history. To move to Pensum, carry your weigh-ins over through Health Connect and rebuild your usual foods by scanning their barcodes.
What is the best free Lose It alternative without ads?
Pensum is a free Lose It alternative for Android, with no ads and no subscription needed: diary, barcode scanner, photo logging, gram macro targets, 18 micronutrients and a calorie target from your measured expenditure, with no account. It sells no data. iPhone has a waitlist.
Does Lose It adjust my calories to my real metabolism?
Lose It calculates your budget from BMR times an activity level you choose, then subtracts a deficit for your weekly goal, and rescales it as your weight changes. It does not measure expenditure from your logged intake and weight trend. Pensum does, for free, and publishes every equation on its expenditure page.
Is Pensum available on iPhone?
Not yet. Pensum is on Google Play for Android, with a direct APK for phones without Google services. An iPhone version has a waitlist on the Pensum home page, with no release date promised.
How we compared
We used Lose It's Google Play listing and its help center articles on membership tiers, ads, Snap It, the barcode scanner, macros, the calorie budget, Health Connect and data export, checked on 25 September 2026, alongside the current Pensum release. Prices vary by region and change over time. If something here is out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
- Lose It help: Membership Tiers and Pricing
- Lose It help: What is Lose It! Premium?
- Lose It help: Unlocking the Barcode Scanner
- Lose It help: How to Use Snap It
- Lose It help: Ad-Free Version of Lose It!
- Lose It help: Macronutrient Calculation
- Lose It help: How the Calorie Budget is Calculated
- Lose It help: Using Health Connect With Lose It!
- Lose It help: How to Download Your Data
- Lose It on Google Play
Barcode scanning and gram macro targets, free. No ads.